Vacation--Part 3, The End

I know that the last part of our vacation pictures and fun has been a long time coming. (We just moved into our first home!)

The reason why we chose to go to Utah when we did was because there was a Science Fiction/Fantasy Symposium going on at BYU, in Provo, UT. I call it the nerd convention! But while I was there rubbing elbows with famous and not so famous nerds I realized that I am a nerd too! But don't tell anyone, it's our little secret!

The girls and I went to a bunch of different lectures and panels, Erik and Austin attended a bunch more than we did. We attended a class about making jewelry, Science Fiction and Fantasy books for kids and how to incorporate them in the classroom, supporting your creative partner, and a few others. Erik and Austin attended classes on writing believable characters, intriguing plots, and other such writing classes, since that is what Erik wants to do when he grows up. Austin also attended a class about video games, since that is what he would like to do when he grows up.

The girls and I also got the job/privilege of standing in lines to get books signed while the others attended classes. We got a bunch of cool books, I know just what we need more books--just be glad you didn't have to move them all and try to find a place for them all to go.

We got to talk with a bunch of really neat people like, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Jake Black, Howard Taylor, John D. Brown, some of their wives as well as many others. And while they won't remember me from the next crazy person, they will be remembered by us! Jake Black in particular gave way more time than he needed to to answer Erik's questions and concerns about writing and supporting a family on a writer's pay.

One day Erik will be there as a guest speaker/panelist and I will still be the crazy wife but this time I'll be the crazy wife of the famous author!

After our days in Utah we then drove straight through to San Diego so Erik could attend a work meeting there the next day. While he was hard at work Austin, the girls, and I went and played at Balboa Park.

Austin, Mia, and Emma at Temple Square in front of the Salt Lake Temple. Families Are Forever!

Emma and Mia at the Paleontology Museum on the BYU campus in Provo, UT.

On the BYU Campus

Petting the snake at a live animal show at the Bean Museum at BYU

Butterfly Mural made with butterflies at the Bean Museum at BYU

Stuffed African Animal display at the Bean Museum

Mia and Emma by Shasta a female liger. Shasta was born and lived her life at the Hogle Zoo in Utah. A liger is a cross breed between a male lion and a female tiger. A tigon would be a male tiger and a female lion

Austin, Emma, and Mia at Balboa Park in San Diego, CA

Emma and Mia at the Natural History Museum in San Diego, CA

Mia and Emma at the playground in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Emma, Mia, and Austin at the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego, CA

Mia and Emma in the Botanical Garden in San Diego.

Back In Business- The California ScienCenter

Hey, folks. Sorry we've been out, but the computer was in the shop.

Here's the adventure we'd been meaning to blog when the computer first went down.

We took the girls down to the California Science Center in LA--they'd been once before when Uncle Ian and Aunt Angela were in town, and this was their first time back.



This is the truck outside that, believe it or not, the girls are lifting up by pulling on that rope. Yay, science.



This was the giant climbing wall. Yes, my girls are awesome.



Last time we went, the "special exhibit" was about Superheros. That was for Daddy. This time, it was about CSI. That was for Mommy. The girls had a great time, though, looking for clues, analyzing evidence, playing with the black light, and ultimately solving the mystery.



This was an exhibit about "Finding The Perfect Sized Sunglasses For You." Or it was a 3-D movie about fish. I'm a little fuzzy on the details now.

All in all, good times.

Coming soon--pictures of the March Daddy/Daughter Mommy/Daughter dates.

February Daddy-Daughter Date with Emma

In February, it was Emma's turn for a Daddy-daughter date, and she chose to go to the same art museum that Miriam had gone to last month.



This time, we got a picture with the Mummy coffin.



These were some ancient games that Emma was excited to get her picture taken with. If you click on the picture, you can see Emma has brought a little green man with her that she is showing around.



Now this may look like I was just excited to take another picture of the ancient rat trap, but really Emma was excited to get a picture of the little green man with the ancient little blue man.

You just have to love Emma.

Art On Exhibit

The girls are so super-dee-duper excited about this! They have a picture from their art class hanging up in the museum.

Granted the pictures are hanging up outside their art classroom, but it still inside the museum and anyone who goes in can see the pictures!

They were talking about symmetrical and asymmetrical paintings. They had to paint either a symmetrical or asymmetrical face!

They are pointing to their painting!

FREE Museum Day!

This past Saturday was FREE museum day at certain museums across the country. And it was Growing Up Californian at the San Bernardino County Museum. Erik and I had already decided to take the girls to the museum and then we found out about the FREE museum day and lucky for us the San Bernardino County Museum was one on the list! Yay! We are so determined to get out of debt in 6 months so this was an added bonus for us, we ended up saving about $30!

We got to see everything in the few hours that we had to spend there, I had to get back to catch my ride to the Relief Society Broadcast later that evening!

We saw all the stuffed animals, real stuffed animals not toys! We saw all the eggs, Erik and I though that the eggs would be the kind of boring to the girls but, Emma was begging to go see the eggs! Go figure.

We got to see the display on local architecture through the ages, really really interesting to Erik and I, not so much to the girls. Luckily they had blocks for the girls to build their own buildings and pictures to color.

We also got to see the live animals. The girls got to pet the rabbit and see all the different lizards, bugs, and snakes! Have I mentioned how much the girls love animals, any kind of animals?

We also got to attend the Growing Up Californian for FREE! The girls got to learn how it was to grow up as a child when California was first being settled.

They got to take a turn at washing, rinsing, wringing, drying, and ironing clothes. They got to beat rugs and make candles. They got to see and play with some toys from that time period. They made butter and ground up corn into cornmeal.

We all learned alot and had a great time doing it!

Mia washing clothes

Emma wringing out the clothes

Emma hanging up clothes to dry

Mia ironing

Emma beating the rug

Girls making candles

Girls grinding corn into cornmeal

Mia playing with the cup and ball

Emma playing with the hoop and stick

Mia playing with the hoop and stick

McDonalds Museum in San Bernardino

Okay, so you've all seen it when you were driving down E Street, but you've never stopped there.

Well, as of today, we have.

As I expected, the museum at the location of the first ever McDonalds is pretty much a Happy Meal toy museum. Check out this video, and I'll bet you'll see at least one toy that you had as a kid.

Plus, they had some of the old playplace equipment--the Mayor McCheese you could climb in, the Fry Guy rocking horses, and of course, the plug-in carousel.

Fun Day In Hemet

The girls and I went with Erik to work on Friday. Okay, we took him to work and then we went and played! So, while Erik was hard at work earning his paycheck we were busy spending it.

We found this cute little children's museum called Kid Zone, it's just down the street from Erik's office in Hemet. It looks really tiny from the outside but it is packed full of fun activities that kept us busy for hours. They have so many things that it is going to be hard to remember everything.

There is an excavation site where you can dig through rocks to "discover" bones. They have a smaller fire truck with firemen outfits including, pants, jackets, gloves, boots, and hats that the kids can try on! They have a small rowboat set up, a little village complete with a school, doctor's office, police station, and TV production studio. There is also a police car, two police motorcycles, an ambulance, a small transit bus, and an electric car that the kids can climb in. They have a small area set up as a bank with fake money. There is a small section set up to look like a Stater Brothers grocery store complete with the little carts and check out stand. There are musical instruments, building equipment, coloring tables, and even an enclosed basketball court with wheelchairs to play wheelchair basketball.

They even have a discovery center, where you can check out a box on a specific theme. Each box is full of different activities, games, worksheets to help your knowledge to grow in a specific area. We did the "Wild Things" box and learned all about wild animals!

The girls' favorite part was the climbing wall and the spinning thing. Yes, you read right they have one wall that is painted to look like a castle and then the wall is made into a rock wall, that the girls had a blast going on again and again and again and again! Emma was a little leery at first and wasn't sure she wanted to go on but by the end I couldn't get her or Miriam off! And their second favorite part was the spinning thing. It was basically a pole on a wooden stand that you stand on and make it spin around. And boy did it go fast. It made me dizzy just watching!

After we were done at the museum we went and picked up Erik and had a picnic lunch at the park there in Hemet. After we finished eating we took Erik to a different office just 15 minutes away, and then we went back to the park to play out side! We spent most of the time playing tag, yes mom even joined in the game! After we were all tuckered out (and we had to go to the bathroom) we decided to go to the Hemet Public Library.

Okay, we did clean up with wipes in the car before we went to the library. And boy were the girls dirty after playing outside! So, about 25 extremely dirty wipes later I decreed that we were now clean enough to be seen in public we went to the library.

Hemet has the most beautiful public library that I have ever seen! Seriously, it is so big and both the inside and the outside are just gorgeous, no plain brown building here. We went in and used the bathroom and then went and did a math worksheet that I just happened to have packed that morning for just such an occasion, and we sat down so the girls could get their worksheet done. After the worksheet they were then allowed to look at books, put together puzzles, and their favorite part play games on the computers!

Oh how the time flies when you are having fun. Before we knew it, it was time to go pick up Erik and head for home.

What a great time we had playing and learning! I LOVE homeschooling because we can do spur of the moment things like this.